TEDxDetroit: TechTown head urges Metro Detroiters to learn from failures

View full sizeJonathan Oosting | MLive.comRandal Charlton, executive director of Wayne State University affiliate TechTown, speaks at TEDxDetroit Wednesday at the Max M Fisher Music Center in Detroit.

Randal Charlton wants to give something back to Detroit that it helped him regain years ago -- confidence.

After failing businesses and his daughter’s death, Charlton - executive director of Wayne State University affiliate TechTown - came to the Motor City because it was the “lowest cost place in America” and his final attempt to restore his career.

“It’s OK to fail, as long as you take lessons from that failure and move on to the next thing,” he told the 1,000 or so attendees Wednesday at TEDxDetroit.

Charlton, who has run everything from multi-million dollar companies to deliveries, founded Asterand Inc. at TechOne, the first building in Wayne State’s TechTown, and turned it into the leading supplier of high quality human tissue and tissue-based services in the world.

“Detroit gave me back my confidence and for that I will always be grateful,” said Charlton, who stepped down as the company’s CEO in 2007 to head TechTown.

“Detroit needed confidence and a lot of good people, mid-career had lost their way, lost their mojo and some way I could connect with them,” he said, adding one of TechTown’s main missions is to connect people with one another.

“I think it’s working,” he said, urging attendees to not be afraid of failing because everyone in one idea away from helping themselves and the city. “We are one job at a time, one company at a time … rebuilding Detroit.”

TechTown is a 12-block, 43-acre park that borders Detroit’s Midtown and New Center districts. It describes itself as "a community of entrepreneurs, investors, mentors, service providers and corporate partners creating an internationally recognized entrepreneurial village in the city of Detroit.

TEDxDetroit kicked off at 8 a.m. today with all proceeds going to support art and technology programs for kids in Metro Detroit.